Banner young guns facing pre-championship acid test

Pat Donnellan of Clare says he and his colleagues have achieved their “target” of getting into Division 1A but Sunday’s Allianz HL semi-final against Kilkenny is a chance “to see where we’re at come the championship”.

Asked if Clare would have no fear of the Cats, however, Donnellan was cautious.

“I wouldn’t say that, not when you’re playing a big team. The first thing for us is to work on our performance and make sure that’s okay rather than worrying about how Kilkenny or Tipperary or Cork or whoever are going to play.

“If you don’t perform against them they [Kilkenny] can obliterate you and can put you away early. We’ve played well in the League so far but at the same time we know that there’s a big gap between what we’ve been playing so far as opposed to Kilkenny, who have been setting the standards.

“We know where we’re at and if we want to be challenging against those sort of teams we have to be performing at another level or two up and we know that the next day we’ll have to start well, we’ll have to bring intensity, we’ll have to bring a physicality and performance that will match them and not get thrown aside like teams have by them before.

“These games are important for us because of the gap between the league and the championship — the league can be false because of the gap between the two competitions, so this game, close to the championship, gives you an idea of where you are.”

Progressing from Division 1B was the early-season aim for Clare, said Donnellan.

“That was the target, there are a lot of good teams in Division 1B but if you want to be challenging for titles and so on you have to be playing better teams. Getting to Division 1A was the goal and thankfully we reached it.”

Clare’s fitness levels this year have been widely remarked upon.

“We’re probably a very young panel compared to some others, we’ve had lads coming through from minor and U21, so a lot of the lads are naturally fit, but we’ve a lot of work done as well.

“The old Clare team were a more physical team in terms of their height and physique while we’re a team with all the signs of youth, if you like, an emerging team with younger lads of smaller stature, so we’re trying to see what game plan suits us.”

The new Clare team is built on successful minor and U21 sides, and Donnellan says the newcomers’ confidence is apparent:

“Younger fellas these days seem to have a lot more confidence, I don’t know what it is. Whenever they come in they seem to walk in as if they own the place, which is probably good in a way if the confidence is justified.

“And I think with the players we have, a lot of the confidence they have in themselves is justified and they are very good players. They are players who have won All-Irelands so it is brilliant to have those young lads in. They are very good trainers, very honest.”

Clare may not have a full hand on Sunday, but Donnellan says that’s the test of their panel.

“We’ll know for sure come Saturday, who’s in and who’s out, that’s one of the reasons we’ve been trying to build a big panel, to have lads coming in.

“Darach Honan and Pat Vaughan are long-term injuries but hopefully they’ll be close enough to getting back for the championship. That’s the main goal and you want all your players available for that.”